Gesture mapping for image filter input parameters

ABSTRACT

This disclosure pertains to systems, methods, and computer readable medium for mapping particular user interactions, e.g., gestures, to the input parameters of various image processing routines, e.g., image filters, in a way that provides a seamless, dynamic, and intuitive experience for both the user and the software developer. Such techniques may handle the processing of both “relative” gestures, i.e., those gestures having values dependent on how much an input to the device has changed relative to a previous value of the input, and “absolute” gestures, i.e., those gestures having values dependent only on the instant value of the input to the device. Additionally, inputs to the device beyond user-input gestures may be utilized as input parameters to one or more image processing routines. For example, the device&#39;s orientation, acceleration, and/or position in three-dimensional space may be used as inputs to particular image processing routines.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Each of the following applications are hereby incorporated by reference:application Ser. No. 16/260,525 filed on Jan. 29, 2019; application Ser.No. 15/366,469 filed on Dec. 1, 2016; application Ser. No. 14/268,041filed on May 2, 2014; application Ser. No. 13/052,994 filed on Mar. 21,2011; application No. 61/431,718 filed on Jan. 11, 2011. The Applicanthereby rescinds any disclaimer of claim scope in the parentapplication(s) or the prosecution history thereof and advises the USPTOthat the claims in this application may be broader than any claim in theparent application(s).

BACKGROUND

The disclosed embodiments relate generally to portable electronicdevices, and more particularly, to portable electronic devices thatdisplay filtered images on a touch screen display.

As portable electronic devices have become more compact, and the numberof functions able to be performed by a given device has steadilyincreased, it has become a significant challenge to design a userinterface that allows users to easily interact with such multifunctionaldevices. This challenge is particularly significant for handheldportable electronic devices, which have much smaller screens thantypical desktop or laptop computers.

As such, some portable electronic devices (e.g., mobile telephones,sometimes called mobile phones, cell phones, cellular telephones, andthe like) have employed touch-sensitive displays (also known as a “touchscreens”) with a graphical user interface (GUI), one or more processors,memory and one or more modules, programs or sets of instructions storedin the memory for performing multiple functions. In some embodiments,the user interacts with the GUI primarily through finger contacts andgestures on the touch-sensitive display. In some embodiments, thefunctions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing,instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videorecording, web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital videoplaying. Instructions for performing these functions may be included ina computer readable storage medium or other computer program productconfigured for execution by one or more processors.

Touch-sensitive displays can provide portable electronic devices withthe ability to present transparent and intuitive user interfaces forviewing and navigating GUIs and multimedia content. Such interfaces canincrease the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction withactivities like digital photography on portable electronic devices. Inparticular, portable electronic devices used for digital photography anddigital video may provide the user with the ability perform variousimage processing techniques, such as filtering, focusing, exposing,optimizing, or otherwise adjusting captured images-either in real timeas the image frames are being captured by the portable electronicdevice's image sensor or after the image has been stored in the device'smemory.

As image processing capabilities of portable electronic devices continueto expand and become more complex, software developers of clientapplications for such portable electronic devices increasingly need tounderstand how the various inputs and states of the device should betranslated into input parameters for the image processing routines. As asimple example, consider a single tap gesture at a particular coordinate(x, y) on a touch screen. One example of translating the input pointlocation of (x, y) to an “auto focus” image processing routine would beto cause the coordinate (x, y) to serve as the center of a rectangularbox over which the image sensor will attempt to focus for the nextcaptured image frame. With more complex image processing routines,however, such as graphically intensive image filters, the number andtype of inputs, as well as logical considerations regarding theorientation of the device and other factors may become too complex forclient software applications to readily be able to interpret and/orprocess correctly.

Accordingly, there is a need for techniques to implement a programmaticinterface to map particular user interactions, e.g., gestures, to theinput parameters of various image processing routines, e.g., imagefilters, in a way that provides a seamless, dynamic, and intuitiveexperience for both the user and the client application softwaredeveloper.

SUMMARY

As mentioned above, with more complex image processing routines beingcarried out on personal electronic devices, such as graphicallyintensive image filters, e.g., image distortion filters, the number andtype of inputs, as well as logical considerations regarding theorientation of the device and other factors may become too complex forclient software applications to readily interpret and/or processcorrectly.

As such, in one embodiment described herein, image filters arecategorized by their input parameters. For example, circular filters,i.e., image filters with distortions or other effects centered over aparticular circular-shaped region of the image, may need inputparameters of “input center” and “radius.” Thus, when a clientapplication wants to call a particular circular filter, it queries thefilter for its input parameters and then passes the appropriate valuesretrieved from user input (e.g. gestures) and/or device input (e.g.,orientation information) to a gesture translation layer, which maps theuser and device input information to the actual input parametersexpected by the image filter itself. In some embodiments, the user anddevice input will be mapped to a value that is limited to apredetermined range, wherein the predetermined range is based on theinput parameter. Therefore, the client application doesn't need tohandle logical operations to be performed by the gesture translationlayer or know exactly what will be done with those values by theunderlying image filter. It merely needs to know that a particularfilter's input parameters are, e.g., “input center” and “radius,” andthen pass the relevant information along to the gesture translationlayer, which will in turn give the image filtering routines the valuesthat are needed to filter the image as indicated by the user, and aswill be discussed in further detail below.

In another embodiment, one or more processors in a personal electronicdevice may receive the selection of image filter(s) to be applied. Next,the device may receive input data from one or more sensors which may bedisposed within or upon the device (e.g., image sensor, orientationsensor, accelerometer, Global Positioning System (GPS), gyrometer).Next, the device may receive and register high level events (e.g.,gestures) and then use the received device input data and registeredevent data to pass appropriate input parameters to the selected imagefilter(s). Finally, the selected image processing routines may beapplied, and a filtered image may be returned to the device's displayand/or stored to a memory in communication with the device. In someembodiments, the image filter is applied in near-real time, i.e.,substantially immediately after the act of passing the appropriate inputparameters to the selected image filter occurs.

In yet another embodiment, rather than merely returning a filtered imageto the device's display, the device may calculate an image overlaypreview grid for the selected image filter(s) and current device inputdata and gesture inputs. Such an overlay may indicate to the user of thedevice what inputs are available (e.g., touch, rotation, resizing) andwhat effect the current settings of the device's inputs will have on theimage when the selected image filter(s) are applied.

In still other embodiments, the gesture mapping techniques describedabove may be applied to video capture as well. Once the device has begunto capture video data, e.g., in the form of a video stream of images,received device input data and registered event data may be used to passappropriate input parameters to the selected image filter(s) and performimage filtering on the current image frame of the captured video data.As each image frame of video data is captured, the process mayoptionally store each rendered image frame to memory or merely store thetime-tagged sequence of user inputs (e.g. gestures) and/or device inputs(e.g., orientation) that occurred during the video capturing(hereinafter the “gesture track”) so that the gesture track may beapplied to unfiltered video data at a later date and time, perhaps by adevice having a more powerful processor.

In yet another embodiment, face detection algorithms may be employedsuch that, once the “focus” of an image processing routine, i.e., thecentral location of the image filter's effect, has been placed on anarea of the image determined to be a human face, the focus of the imageprocessing routine will remain over the detected face so long as thedetected face remains in the captured image data. For example, if theuser of a device employing this embodiment were to indicate via a singletap gesture that a particular subject's face should be the center point,i.e. the “focus,” of a particular image processing routine, thesubject's face could remain the center point of the image processingroutine as that person moved within the captured image data, without theneed for the operator of the device to have to continuously click on thesubject's face to indicate a new position for the center point of theimage processing routine.

Gesture mapping techniques in accordance with the various embodimentsdescribed herein may be implemented directly by a device's hardwareand/or software, thus making these intuitive and fun image filteringtechniques readily applicable to any number of electronic devices, suchas mobile phones, personal data assistants (PDAs), portable musicplayers, monitors, televisions, as well as laptop, desktop, and tabletcomputer systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical outdoor scene with a human subject, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a typical outdoor scene with a human subject asviewed on a camera device's preview screen, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates a user interacting with a camera device via a touchgesture, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a user tap point on a touch screen of a camera devicein “landscape orientation,” in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a mirroring image filter in landscape orientationbased on a user tap point on a touch screen of a camera device, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a user tap point on a touch screen of a cameradevice, in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a mirroring image filter in landscape orientationbased on a user tap point on a touch screen of a camera device, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a user tap point on a touch screen of a camera devicein “portrait orientation,” in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates a mirroring image filter in portrait orientationbased on a user tap point on a touch screen of a camera device, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIGS. 10A-10C illustrate the input of a relative gesture, in accordancewith one embodiment.

FIG. 11 illustrates the translation of a gesture from touch screen spaceto image sensor space, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 12 illustrates a three-tiered programmatic gesture mappingarchitecture, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 13 illustrates various filter types and their corresponding inputparameters and exemplary image filters, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 14 illustrates nine various images filters on the display of apersonal electronic device, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 15 illustrates grid overlays for the nine image filters of FIG. 14,in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 16 illustrates an image overlay preview grid for a twirl imagefilter, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 17 illustrates, in flowchart form, one embodiment of a process forperforming gesture mapping for image filter input parameters.

FIG. 18 illustrates, in flowchart form, one embodiment of a process fordisplaying a grid overlay indicative of gesture mapping for image filterinput parameters.

FIG. 19 illustrates, in flowchart form, one embodiment of a process forperforming gesture mapping for image filter input parameters duringvideo capture.

FIG. 20 illustrates, in flowchart form, one embodiment of a process forperforming facial detection in conjunction with gesture mapping forimage filter input parameters.

FIG. 21 illustrates a simplified functional block diagram of a devicepossessing a display, in accordance with one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure pertains to systems, methods, and computer readablemedium for mapping particular user interactions, e.g., gestures, to theinput parameters of various image processing routines, e.g., imagefilters, in a way that provides a seamless, dynamic, and intuitiveexperience for both the user and the software developer. Such techniquesmay handle the processing of both “relative” gestures, i.e., thosegestures having values dependent on how much an input to the device haschanged relative to a previous value of the input, and “absolute”gestures, i.e., those gestures having values dependent only on theinstant value of the input to the device. Additionally, inputs to thedevice beyond user-input gestures may be utilized as input parameters toone or more image processing routines. For example, the device'sorientation, acceleration, and/or position in three-dimensional spacemay be used as inputs to particular image processing routines.

The techniques disclosed herein are applicable to any number ofelectronic devices with optical sensors: such as digital cameras,digital video cameras, mobile phones, personal data assistants (PDAs),portable music players, monitors, televisions, and, of course, desktop,laptop, and tablet computer displays.

In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementationare described in this specification. It will of course be appreciatedthat in the development of any such actual implementation (as in anydevelopment project), numerous decisions must be made to achieve thedevelopers' specific goals (e.g., compliance with system- andbusiness-related constraints), and that these goals will vary from oneimplementation to another. It will be appreciated that such developmenteffort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be aroutine undertaking for those of ordinary skill having the benefit ofthis disclosure.

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the inventive concept. As part of the description, somestructures and devices may be shown in block diagram form in order toavoid obscuring the invention. (In addition, references to numberswithout subscripts are understood to reference all instances ofsubscripts corresponding to the referenced number.) Moreover, thelanguage used in this disclosure has been principally selected forreadability and instructional purposes, and may not have been selectedto delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter, resort to theclaims being necessary to determine such inventive subject matter.Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or to “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiments is included in at least oneembodiment of the invention, and multiple references to “one embodiment”or “an embodiment” should not be understood as necessarily all referringto the same embodiment.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a typical outdoor scene 100 with a humansubject 102 is shown, in accordance with one embodiment. The scene 100also includes the Sun 106 and a natural object, tree 104. Scene 100 willbe used in the subsequent figures as an exemplary scene to illustratethe various image processing techniques described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a typical outdoor scene 200 with a humansubject 202 as viewed on a camera device 208's preview screen 210 isshown, in accordance with one embodiment. The dashed lines 212 indicatethe viewing angle of the camera (not shown) on the reverse side ofcamera device 208. Camera device 208 may also possess a second camera,such as front-facing camera 250. Other numbers and positions of camerason camera device 208 are also possible. As mentioned previously,although camera device 208 is shown here as a mobile phone, theteachings presented herein are equally applicable to any electronicdevice possessing a camera, such as, but not limited to: digital videocameras, personal data assistants (PDAs), portable music players,laptop/desktop/tablet computers, or conventional digital cameras. Eachobject in the scene 100 has a corresponding representation in the scene200 as viewed on a camera device 208's preview screen 210. For example,human subject 102 is represented as object 202, tree 104 is representedas object 204, and Sun 106 is represented as object 206.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a user 300 interacting with a camera device 208via an exemplary touch gesture is shown, in accordance with oneembodiment. The preview screen 210 of camera device 208 may be, forexample, a touch screen. The touch-sensitive touch screen 210 providesan input interface and an output interface between the device 208 and auser 300. The touch screen 210 displays visual output to the user. Thevisual output may include graphics, text, icons, pictures, video, andany combination thereof.

A touch screen such as touch screen 210 has a touch-sensitive surface,sensor or set of sensors that accepts input from the user based onhaptic and/or tactile contact. The touch screen 210 detects contact (andany movement or breaking of the contact) on the touch screen 210 andconverts the detected contact into interaction with user-interfaceobjects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages, images orportions of images) that are displayed on the touch screen. In anexemplary embodiment, a point of contact between a touch screen 210 andthe user corresponds to a finger of the user 300.

The touch screen 210 may use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, orLPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, although other displaytechnologies may be used in other embodiments. The touch screen 210 maydetect contact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of aplurality of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed,including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, andsurface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensorarrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contactwith a touch screen 210.

A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of the touch screen 210may be analogous to the multi-touch sensitive tablets described in thefollowing U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,846 (Westerman et al.), U.S. Pat. No.6,570,557 (Westerman et al.), and/or U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,932(Westerman), and/or U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0015024A1, each ofwhich is hereby incorporated by reference. A touch-sensitive display insome embodiments of the touch screen 210 may be as described in thefollowing applications: (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/381,313,“Multipoint Touch Surface Controller,” filed May 2, 2006; (2) U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, “Multipoint Touchscreen,” filedMay 6, 2004; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/903,964, “GesturesFor Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jul. 30, 2004; (4) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/048,264, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive InputDevices,” filed Jan. 31, 2005; (5) U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/038,590, “Mode-Based Graphical User Interfaces For Touch SensitiveInput Devices,” filed Jan. 18, 2005; (6) U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/228,758, “Virtual Input Device Placement On A Touch Screen UserInterface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (7) U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/228,700, “Operation Of A Computer With A Touch Screen Interface,”filed Sep. 16, 2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/228,737,“Activating Virtual Keys Of A Touch-Screen Virtual Keyboard,” filed Sep.16, 2005; and (9) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/367,749,“Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 3, 2006. All of theseapplications are incorporated by reference herein.

The touch screen 210 may have a resolution in excess of 300 dots perinch (dpi). In an exemplary embodiment, the touch screen has aresolution of approximately 325 dpi. The user 300 may make contact withthe touch screen 210 using any suitable object or appendage, such as astylus, a finger, and so forth. In some embodiments, the user interfaceis designed to work primarily with finger-based contacts and gestures,which typically have larger areas of contact on the touch screen thanstylus-based input. In some embodiments, the device translates the roughfinger-based gesture input into a precise pointer/cursor coordinateposition or command for performing the actions desired by the user 300.

As used herein, a gesture is a motion of the object/appendage makingcontact with the touch screen display surface. One or more fingers maybe used to perform two-dimensional or three-dimensional operations onone or more graphical objects presented on preview screen 210, includingbut not limited to: magnifying, zooming, expanding, minimizing,resizing, rotating, sliding, opening, closing, focusing, flipping,reordering, activating, deactivating and any other operation that can beperformed on a graphical object. In some embodiments, the gesturesinitiate operations that are related to the gesture in an intuitivemanner. For example, a user can place an index finger and thumb on thesides, edges or corners of a graphical object and perform a pinching oranti-pinching gesture by moving the index finger and thumb together orapart, respectively. The operation initiated by such a gesture resultsin the dimensions of the graphical object changing. In some embodiments,a pinching gesture will cause the size of the graphical object todecrease in the dimension being pinched. In some embodiments, a pinchinggesture will cause the size of the graphical object to decreaseproportionally in all dimensions. In some embodiments, an anti-pinchingor de-pinching movement will cause the size of the graphical object toincrease in the dimension being anti-pinched. In other embodiments, ananti-pinching or de-pinching movement will cause the size of a graphicalobject to increase in all dimensions (e.g., enlarging proportionally inthe x and y dimensions).

Referring now to FIG. 4, a user tap point 402 on a touch screen 210 of acamera device 208 positioned in “landscape” orientation is shown, inaccordance with one embodiment. The location of tap point 402 isrepresented by an oval shaded with diagonal lines. As mentioned above,in some embodiments, the device translates finger-based tap points intoa precise pointer/cursor coordinate position, represented in FIG. 4 aspoint 404 with coordinates x1 and y1. As shown in FIG. 4, thex-coordinates of the device's display correspond to the shorterdimension of the display, and the y-coordinates correspond to the longerdimension of the display. Axis 400, whose location is defined by they-coordinate, y1, of point 404 may be used in the application of aparticular image distortion filter, for example a mirroring distortioneffect, as will be described in further detail below.

In some embodiments, the user-input gestures to device 208 may be usedto drive the setting of input parameters of various image processingroutines, such as image filters, e.g., image distortion filters. Theabove functionality can be realized with an input parameter gesturemapping process. The process begins by detecting N contacts on thedisplay surface 210. When N contacts are detected, information such asthe location, duration, size, and rotation of each of the N contacts iscollected by the device. The user is then allowed to adjust the inputparameters by making or modifying a gesture at or near the point ofcontact. If motion is detected, the input parameters may be adjustedbased on the motion. For example, the central point, or “focus,” of anexemplary image distortion filter may be animated to simulate the motionof the user's finger and to indicate to the user that the inputparameter, i.e., the central point of the image distortion filter, isbeing adjusted in accordance with the motion of the user's finger.

If one or more of the N contacts is lost, then the current value orstate of the parameter may be saved and a timer may be started. If thetimer exceeds a threshold time before contact is reestablished then thecurrent values of the input parameter may be saved. If contact isreestablished before the timer exceeds the threshold time, the user maybe able to continue adjusting the input parameter from its last valuecomputed during operation.

When adjusting an input parameter (such as the central point or radiusof a circular image filter) of an image filter, there may be a scenariowhere the user intentionally loses contact with the display surface 210.For example, the user may wish to adjust the parameter by making amulti-touch gesture two or more times. The gesture may includerepetitive motions, such as rotation or de-pinching (where the usermakes contact with his or her fingers close together and then moves themapart). For example, the user may make contact, perform the gesture,break contact, make contact again, and perform the gesture again. Such asequence may be repeated multiple times. The adjustment of the imagefilter input parameter may be in accordance with the gesture. In someembodiments, operations corresponding to such repeated gestures may beapplied or used to modify the image filter input parameter if an elapsedtime between breaking contact and making contact again is less than apre-determined value or time interval.

In some embodiments, the input parameter's change in magnitude may be anonlinear function of the magnitude of the input gesture, e.g., anexponential function. For example, the input parameter's change may bean exponential function of the rotation, swipe, and/or de-pinchinggesture. This may allow the user to modify the input parameter withoutmaking multiple gestures or by using fewer gestures than would otherwisebe needed with a linear variation of the parameter as a function of thedisplacement of the N contacts during the gesture.

In some embodiments, the image may comprise both a high-resolutionversion and a low-resolution version, and, to improve processingefficiency, the act of applying the image filter to the image maycomprise applying the image filter to both the high-resolution andlow-resolution versions of the image, wherein the act of applying theimage filter to the high-resolution version of the image is performed bya CPU (central processing unit) of the electronic device, and whereinthe act of applying the image filter to the low-resolution version ofthe image is performed by a GPU (graphics processing unit) of theelectronic device.

While the input parameter adjustment process described above includes anumber of operations that appear to occur in a specific order, it shouldbe apparent that these processes can include more or fewer steps oroperations, which can be executed serially or in parallel (e.g., usingparallel processors or a multi-threading environment).

As mentioned above, the location of touch point 402, as defined by point404 having coordinates x1 and y1, may be used by a particular imagedistortion filter, e.g., a mirroring distortion filter, to define axis400. With device 208 positioned in landscape orientation, as shown inFIG. 4, the location of axis 400 may be defined by the y-coordinate, y1,of point 404. If instead, the device 208 is positioned in portraitorientation, as will be shown in FIGS. 8-9, the location of axis 400 maybe defined by the x-coordinate of the user touch point. The mirroringdistortion filter is just one example of an image filter where theclient calling application would only need to send device inputinformation (i.e., the coordinates of the user touch point and theorientation of the device) to the gesture translation layer (discussedbelow in reference to FIG. 12) for the mirroring image distortion to beapplied and would not need to understand the underlying logic to beapplied by the image distortion filter, such as taking axis location anddevice orientation into account when applying the image filter.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a mirroring image distortion filter inlandscape orientation based on a user tap point 402 on a touch screen210 of a camera device 208 is shown, in accordance with one embodiment.As described above, axis 400 serves as the mirroring axis for thisdistortion, and its location is based on the location of user tap point402 in the direction of the y-axis of the phone. In this exemplaryembodiment of a mirroring distortion filter, the left hand side of theimage is mirrored over to the right hand side of the device's displayscreen, although such a choice is not strictly necessary. As is shown inmirrored scene 500, human subject 202 a originally found on the lefthand side of the image is now mirrored in the form of human subject 202b onto the right hand side of the image. Likewise, the left hand side204 a of tree 204 is mirrored onto the right hand side of the image inthe form of 204 b and the trunk of tree 204 from original scene 200 isno longer visible in the distorted image as displayed on touch screen210.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a user tap point 602 on a touch screen 210 of acamera device 208 positioned in “landscape” orientation is shown, inaccordance with another embodiment. As described above, touch point 602may be defined by point 604 having coordinates x2 and y2, whichcoordinates may be used by the mirroring distortion filter to defineaxis 600. When compared with FIGS. 4-5, the value of y2 is greater thany1, indicating that the user tapped the touch screen of the devicefarther to the right hand side of the screen. Thus, in the embodimentshown in FIG. 6, the mirroring image distortion filter will be appliedabout axis 600.

Referring now to FIG. 7, a mirroring image distortion filter inlandscape orientation based on a user tap point 602 on a touch screen210 of a camera device 208 is shown, in accordance with one embodiment.As described above, axis 600 serves as the mirroring axis for thisdistortion, and its location is based on the location of user tap point602 in the direction of the y-axis of the phone. In this exemplaryembodiment of a mirroring distortion filter, the left hand side of theimage is mirrored over to the right hand side of the device's displayscreen, although such a choice is not strictly necessary. As is shown inmirrored scene 700, human subject 202 a originally found on the lefthand side of the image is now mirrored in the form of human subject 202b onto the right hand side of the image, though only a small portion ofhuman subject 202 b is seen on the right hand side of the image.Likewise, the left hand sides 204 a of tree 204 and 206 a of Sun 206 aremirrored onto the right hand side of the image in the form of 204 b and206 b in the distorted image as displayed on touch screen 210.

Referring now to FIG. 8, a user tap point 802 on a touch screen 210 of acamera device 208 positioned in “portrait” orientation is shown, inaccordance with another embodiment. As described above, touch point 802may be defined by point 804 having coordinates x3 and y3, whichcoordinates may be used by the mirroring distortion filter to definemirroring axis 806. When compared with FIGS. 4-7, the mirroring axis 806in FIG. 8 is determined to be defined by the position of thex-coordinate of the touch point rather than the y-coordinate of thetouch point because the device is positioned in portrait orientation,and the particular image filter being described herein still desiresthat the mirroring distortion mirrors the left hand side of the image tothe right hand side of the image. As can be understood more clearly withreference to FIG. 8, were the mirroring distortion filter not to takethe device's orientation into account, the mirroring axis would still bedefined by the y-coordinate of the touch point, and would have theeffect of mirroring the bottom half of scene 800 to the top half ofscene 800.

Referring now to FIG. 9, a mirroring image distortion filter in portraitorientation based on a user tap point 802 on a touch screen 210 of acamera device 208 is shown, in accordance with one embodiment. Asdescribed above, axis 806 serves as the mirroring axis for thisdistortion, and its location is based on the location of user tap point802 in the direction of the x-axis of the phone. In this exemplaryembodiment of a mirroring distortion filter, the left hand side of theimage is mirrored over to the right hand side of the device's displayscreen, although such a choice is not strictly necessary. As is shown inmirrored scene 900, the left half of human subject 202 a's face is nowmirrored in the form of human subject 202 b onto the right hand side ofthe image, and the actual right hand side of human subject 202's faceseen in scene 800 of FIG. 8 is no longer visible. Likewise, a depictionof Sun 206, originally on the left hand side of scene 800, now appearson both the left hand side 206 a and the right hand side 206 b of thedistorted image as displayed on touch screen 210.

Relative v. Absolute Gestures

As mentioned above, and as used herein, “relative” gestures refers tothose gestures having values dependent on how much an input to thedevice has changed relative to a previous value of the input, whereas“absolute” gestures refers to those gestures having values dependentonly on the instant value of the input to the device.

For example, the selection of a mirroring axis for the mirroringdistortion image filter described above in reference to FIGS. 4-9 wouldbe considered an “absolute gesture” since the location of the mirroringaxis immediately “snaps to” the location at which the user taps on thetouch screen. If the user were to swipe his or her finger across thetouch screen with the mirroring distortion filter selected, themirroring axis would track the location of the user's touch point.Likewise, other absolute gestures, as will be described in furtherdetail below, will assign values to the input parameters of imagefilters based on the instantaneous and absolute location of the user'sinteraction with respect to the touch screen. Absolute gestures may tendto work well with image filters having a central point or “focus” of theimage filtering effect, such as a “twirl” effect that twirls the imagedata within a circular region within the image. In some embodiments, thelocation of the central point or “focus” of an image filtering effectthat is responding to absolute gestures may be animated from itsprevious location to its current location to avoid any potentiallyvisually jarring effects as the focus of the image filter “jumps” fromlocation to location. In one embodiment, the focus of the image filtereffect may animate over a duration of 0.5 seconds to its new location.Additionally, the focus point may accelerate into and/or out of itsmovements to provide for a smoother and less jarring visual presentationto the user. In other embodiments, an absolute gesture may be configuredwith maximum and minimum effect limits so that the image filteringeffect can neither become so small that the user can't perceive it, norcan it become so large that no part of the original, i.e., undistorted,image can be perceived.

“Relative” gestures, on the other hand, may be better suited to imagefilters whose input is not based on the user's selection of, orinteraction with, a particular portion of the image indicating alocation where the user desires the image filtering effect to becentered or focused. For example, image filters that adjust the image'shue, contrast, or brightness may be well-suited for relative gesturesbecause their effects are less dependent on where in the image the userinteracts. That is, filters that don't relate to a particular “physicalcenter” of the image may be well-suited to relative gestures. Forexample, one relative gesture could be configured such that, for everyten pixels that a user dragged an initial tap location, the brightnessof the image either increased or decreased by 20%, depending on thedirection of movement. By building such multiplier effects into relativegestures, it will be possible for relative gestures to have a greatereffect on the input parameter that the physical size of the previewscreen would otherwise allow. Such relative gestures could alsoimplement flicks, i.e., provide inertia to the setting of the inputparameter based on the intensity and acceleration with which the userswiped the display. Additionally, such input parameters responsive torelative gestures could accelerate into and/or out of value changes soas to avoid any potentially visually jarring effects on the device'sdisplay.

Further, and as will be explained below in reference to FIG. 11, withrelative gestures, the device may not need to account for whether or notthe image being displayed on the device's display is actually a mirroredimage of the “real world,” e.g., the image being displayed on the deviceis often mirrored when a front-facing camera such as front-facing camera250 is being used to drive the device's display.

In accordance with one embodiment described herein, an image filter mayrequest whether it wants to be passed absolute gestures or relativegestures, which logic may be handled by the gesture translation layer(discussed below in reference to FIG. 12), so that the calling clientapplication does not have to handle logic for both types of gestures.

Referring now to FIGS. 10A-10C, the input of an exemplary relativegesture is shown, in accordance with one embodiment. As illustrated inFIGS. 10A-10C, relative gestures input by user 300 may drive the inputparameter to an image filter that simply adjusts image contrast to behigher or lower than its current setting. As shown in FIG. 10A, scene1000A comprising tree 204 has low levels of contrast between the tree204 and the background sky. In FIG. 10A, the finger of user 300initiates a touch gesture with the left hand side of touch screen 210.As FIGS. 10A-10C are meant to illustrate a relative gesture, thelocation that the user 300 selects for his or her initial contact withthe touch screen is not important to the determination of the value thatwill ultimately be sent to the input parameter of the selected imagecontrast image filer. As such, logical slider 1004 is shown in dashedlines on device 208 with logical handle 1002 also shown in dashed lineson device 208 and representing the current location of the user 300'sfinger with respect to where the gesture was initiated. As shown in FIG.10B, the user 300's finger has moved roughly halfway across the width oftouch screen 210, and, accordingly, scene 1000B comprising tree 204shows a higher level of contrast between the tree 204 and the backgroundsky than scene 1000A. As shown in FIG. 10C, the user 300's finger hasmoved all the way to the right hand side of touch screen 210, indicatingthat the user wishes the image filter to apply the maximum allowableamount of contrast to the captured image data, and, accordingly, scene1000C comprising tree 204 shows the highest level of contrast betweenthe tree 204 and the background sky, when compared to scenes 1000A and1000B.

As FIGS. 10A-10C are illustrative of an exemplary relative gesture, itis interesting to note that, if user 300 had initially started his orher finger in the position of the finger in FIG. 10B, and then moved thefinger to the position of the finger as shown in FIG. 10C, the amount ofchange in image contrast would be equivalent to the amount of changeshown between FIGS. 10A and 10B. In other words, the amount of change inthe input parameter caused by the gesture is not tied to any “absolute”location of the input gesture on the preview screen; rather, the effecton the input parameter is “relative” to the amount of change in theinput gesture from its initial location. Image filters responsive tosuch relative gestures may employ an (h, v) coordinate system (i.e.,horizontal/vertical) for their input parameters as opposed to the (x, y)coordinate system described above with reference to absolute gestures.The (h, v) coordinate system may be applied when, for example, the imagefilter doesn't relate to a particular “physical location” in the imageor when a gesture is indicative of a desire to adjust an input parameterlogically ‘left’ or ‘right’ regardless of whether the image beingdisplayed on the device is currently being mirrored or translated insome other way from how it was originally captured by the image sensor.

Referring now to FIG. 11, the translation of a gesture from “touchscreen space” to “image sensor space” is shown, in accordance with oneembodiment. As mentioned above, with certain gestures, the device maynot need to account for whether or not the image being displayed on thedevice's display is actually a mirrored or otherwise translated image ofthe “real world,” e.g., the image being displayed on the device is oftenmirrored when a front-facing camera such as front-facing camera 250 isbeing used to drive the device's display. In instances where the imagebeing displayed on the device's display is actually a translated imageof the “real world,” it may become necessary for the gesture mappingtechniques described herein to translate the location of a user'sgesture input from “touch screen space” to “image sensor space” so thatthe image filtering effect is properly applied to the portion(s) of thecaptured image data indicated by the user. As shown in FIG. 11, user 202is holding the device 208 and pointing it back at himself to capturescene 1100 utilizing front-facing camera 250. As shown in scene 1100,the user 202 has centered himself in the scene 1100, as is commonbehavior in videoconferencing or other self-facing camera applications.

For the sake of illustration, assume that the user 202 has selected animage filter that he would like to be applied to scene 1100, and thathis selected image filter requires the coordinates of an input point asits only input parameter. As described above, the location of the user'stouch point 1114, may be defined by point 1102 having coordinates x4 andy4. The “touch screen space” in the example of FIG. 11 is illustrated byscreen 210 map (1104). As can be understood by comparing the location oftouch point 1114 on touch screen 210 and touch point 1108, asrepresented in touch screen space on screen 210 map (1104), a touchpoint on the touch screen 210 will always translate to an identicallocation in touch screen space, no matter what way the device isoriented, or which of the device's camera is currently driving thedevice's display. As described above, the actual physical location ofthe touch point within the scene being captured by the image sensor maybe unimportant for relative gestures and for image filters where thereis not a “focus” or central position to the image filter's effect.However, for absolute gestures, and especially for image filters wherethere is a “focus” to the image filter's effect, an additionaltranslation between the input point in “touch screen space” and theinput point in “sensor space” may be required to be performed by thegesture translation layer before the image filter effect is applied, asis explained further below.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 11, if the user 202 initiates asingle tap gesture in the lower left corner of the touch screen 210, heis actually clicking on a part of the touch screen that corresponds tothe location of his right shoulder. In an exemplary image filterresponsive to absolute gestures, this may indicate a desire to apply the“focus” of the image filter's effect, e.g., a circular “twirl” effect,to the image sensor data corresponding to the pixels comprising theuser's right shoulder. As may be better understood when following tracelines 1112 between touch screen 210 and the sensor 250 map (1106), touchpoint 1102 in the lower left corner of touch screen 210 translates tothe a touch point 1110 in the equivalent location in the lower rightcorner of sensor 250 map (1106). This is because it is actually thepixels on the right side of the image sensor that correspond to thepixels displayed on the left side of touch screen 210 when thefront-facing camera 250 is driving the device's display.

In other embodiments, further translations may be needed to map betweentouch input points indicated by the user in “touch screen space” and theactual corresponding pixels in “image sensor space.” For example, thetouch input point may need to be mirrored and then rotated ninetydegrees, or the touch input point may need to be rotated 180 degrees toensure that the image filter's effect is applied to the correctcorresponding image sensor data. When properly defined, neither theclient application, the user, nor the image filter itself needs to knowany details about the translation between “touch screen space” and“image sensor space.” All such logic may be carried out by the gesturetranslation layer, in accordance with an embodiment described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 12, a three-tiered programmatic gesture mappingarchitecture is shown, in accordance with one embodiment. First, theClient Application Layer (1200) will be described. The ClientApplication Layer (1200) may: manage how the user interacts with device;receive the selection of image filter(s) to be applied to the imagesensor data; register high level events at device (e.g., gestures); andreceive device orientation, acceleration, position and or/other deviceinput. The received image filter selections, events, and device inputmay then be passed along to the Gesture Translation Layer (1202)provided by, for example, the device's operating system. The GestureTranslation Layer (1202) may: perform mapping between the gesturesreported by the client application layer and the input parameters of thecurrently selected image filter(s). The input parameters determined bythe Gesture Translation Layer (1202) may then be passed along to theImage Filter Layer (1204). The Image Filter Layer (1204) may comprise aset of N filters, each having 0 to M input parameters, and it may:perform the actual manipulation of underlying image data to impose imagefilter effect on image and then send the filtered image data to devicedisplay.

Referring now to FIG. 13, various exemplary filter types and theircorresponding input parameters and exemplary image filters are shown, inaccordance with one embodiment. Filters with no gestures (1300) include:Thermal, X-Ray, and Normal. These filters have no input parameters.Next, filters with x/y gestures (1302) include: Stretch. These filtershave an input parameter of inputPoint. Next, filters with x/y/pinchgestures (1304) include: Squeeze. These filters have input parameters ofinputPoint and inputAmount. Next, filters with x/y/pinch/rotate gestures(1306) include: Light Tunnel, Kaleidoscope, and Twirl. These filtershave input parameters of inputPoint and inputAmount, and rotationAmount.Next, filters with x/y gestures and orientation input (1308) include:Mirror. These filters have input parameters of inputPointanddeviceOrientation. Next, filters with h/v gestures (1310) include:Vintage. These filters have input parameters of inputPoint.

Referring now to FIG. 14, nine various image filters 1400 on the displayof a personal electronic device are shown, in accordance with oneembodiment. The upper left rectangle shows the Thermal filter; the uppercentral rectangle shows the Mirror filter; the upper right rectangleshows the X-ray filter; the middle left rectangle shows the Kaleidoscopefilter; the middle central rectangle shows the image with no filtering,i.e., the Normal filter; the middle right rectangle shows the lightTunnel filter; the lower left rectangle shows the Squeeze filter; thelower central rectangle shows the Twirl filter; and the lower rightrectangle shows the Stretch filter.

Referring now to FIG. 15, grid overlays 1500 for the nine image filtersof FIG. 14 are shown, in accordance with one embodiment. The upper leftrectangle shows the Thermal overlay; the upper central rectangle showsthe Mirror overlay; the upper right rectangle shows the X-ray overlay;the middle left rectangle shows the Kaleidoscope overlay; the middlecentral rectangle shows the image with no overlaid effect, i.e., theNormal overlay; the middle right rectangle shows the Light Tunneloverlay; the lower left rectangle shows the Squeeze overlay; the lowercentral rectangle shows the Twirl overlay; and the lower right rectangleshows the Stretch overlay.

Referring now to FIG. 16, an image overlay preview grid 1600 for a“twirl” image filter is shown, in accordance with one embodiment. Theouter white ring surrounding the subject's face indicates thecircumference of the circle of image data that is to be twirled (i.e.,filtered). The two filled-in white circles on the perimeter of the whitering are indicative of the user's current finger positions on thedisplay of a display device. In some embodiments, the twirl lines insidethe white ring, and the attendant twirled (i.e., filtered) image datawithin the white ring may serve as a preview to the user of what thecaptured image will look like before he or she chooses to actuallycapture the image sensor data and write it to non-volatile memorystorage. In other embodiments, the image overlay preview grid may serveas an indication to the user of what types of interactions may be usedwith the selected image filter (e.g., touch, rotation, resizing, etc.).

Referring now to FIG. 17, one embodiment of a process for performinggesture mapping for image filter input parameters is shown in flowchartform. First, the process begins at Step 1700. Next, the process proceedsto receive the selection of image filter(s) to be applied (Step 1702).In some embodiments, a specified gesture, e.g., shaking the device orquickly double tapping the touch screen, may serve as an indication thatthe user wishes to reset the image filters to their default parameters.Next, the process receives device input data from one or more sensorsdisposed within or otherwise in communication with the device (e.g.,image sensor, orientation sensor, accelerometer, GPS, gyrometer) (Step1704). Next, the process receives and registers high level events atdevice (e.g., gestures) (Step 1706). Next, the process uses device inputdata and registered event data to pass the appropriate input parametersto the selected image filter(s) (Step 1708). Next, the process performsthe desired image filtering (Step 1710) and returns the filtered imagedata to the device's display (Step 1712). In some embodiments, thefiltered image data may be returned directly to the client applicationfor additional processing before being displayed on the device'sdisplay. In other embodiments, the image filter maybe applied to apreviously stored image.

Referring now to FIG. 18, one embodiment of a process for displaying agrid overlay indicative of gesture mapping for image filter inputparameters is shown in flowchart form. First, the process begins at Step1800. Next, the process proceeds to receive the selection of imagefilter(s) to be applied (Step 1802). Next, the process receives deviceinput data from one or more sensors disposed within or otherwise incommunication with the device (e.g., image sensor, orientation sensor,accelerometer, GPS, gyrometer) (Step 1804). Next, the process receivesand registers high level events at device (e.g., gestures) (Step 1806).Next, the process uses device input data and registered event data topass the appropriate input parameters to the selected image filter(s)(Step 1808). Next, the process calculates an image overlay preview gridfor the selected image filter(s) and current device input data andgesture inputs (Step 1810). Finally, the process returns the imageoverlay preview grid to device's display (Step 1812). In someembodiments, the filtered image data may be returned directly to theclient application for additional processing before being displayed onthe device's display.

Referring now to FIG. 19, one embodiment of a process for performinggesture mapping for image filter input parameters during video captureis shown in flowchart form. First, the process begins at Step 1900.Next, the process proceeds to begin capturing video data with one ormore cameras disposed within or otherwise in communication with thedevice (Step 1902). Next, the process proceeds to receive the selectionof image filter(s) to be applied (Step 1904). Next, the process receivesdevice input data from one or more sensors disposed within or otherwisein communication with the device (e.g., image sensor, orientationsensor, accelerometer, GPS, gyrometer) (Step 1906). Next, the processreceives and registers high level events at device (e.g., gestures)(Step 1908). Next, the process uses device input data and registeredevent data to pass the appropriate input parameters to the selectedimage filter(s) (Step 1910). Next, the process performs the desiredimage filtering on the current image frame of the captured video data(Step 1912). At this point, the process may either: store the filteredimage directly into non-volatile memory (essentially rendering andstoring the fully-filtered video stream in near-real time) (Step 1914A)or, if bandwidth or processing power is of concern, the process maysimply store the values of the various selected image filters and theirinput parameters as they varied over time during the video stream(referred to as the video “gesture track”) to the device's memory sothat the complete, rendered and filtered video stream may bereconstructed at a later time to reflect exactly the image filter inputparameters as the user varied them over time during the originalcapturing of the video stream (Step 1914B). Finally, the process returnsthe filtered image data to the device's display (Step 1916). In someembodiments, the filtered image data may be returned directly to theclient application for additional processing before being displayed onthe device's display. In other embodiments, even if the “gesture track”approach is employed, a lower resolution version of the filtered imagemay still be rendered and displayed on the device's preview screen innear-real time.

Referring now to FIG. 20, one embodiment of a process for performingfacial detection in conjunction with gesture mapping for image filterinput parameters is shown in flowchart form. First, the process beginsat Step 2000. Next, the process proceeds to begin capturing data fromone or more image sensors disposed within or otherwise in communicationwith the device (Step 2002). Next, the process may receive device inputindicative of the selection of a face in the image sensor data (Step2004). It should be noted that, if, at Step 2004, it is determined(through the application of a sufficiently robust facial detectionalgorithm) that the device input selection is not in fact indicative ofa face, the process of FIG. 20 may exit and proceed to Step 1802 of FIG.18. Next, the process may receive the selection of image filter(s) to beapplied (Step 2006). Next, the process may receive device input datafrom one or more sensors disposed within or otherwise in communicationwith the device (e.g., image sensor, orientation sensor, accelerometer,GPS, gyrometer) (Step 2008). Next, the process receives and registershigh level events at the device (e.g., gestures) (Step 2010). Next, theprocess uses device input data and registered event data to pass theappropriate input parameters to the selected image filter(s), keepingthe image filter's “focus” on the current position of the selected face(Step 2012). Various techniques regarding the real-time tracking ofdetected faces in captured image sensor data are described incommonly-assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 12/755,542, entitled,“Dynamic Exposure Metering Based on Face Detection,” filed on Apr. 7,2010, which application is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety. In some embodiments, the process may maintain the focus of theimage filter upon the currently selected face so long as the currentlyselected face remains in the captured image sensor data. Upon theselected face leaving the captured image sensor data, the process mayreturn to Step 2004 and wait to again receive device input indicative ofthe selection of a face in the image sensor data. Finally, the processperforms the desired image filtering on the selected portion of theimage sensor data (Step 2014) and returns the filtered image data to thedevice's display (Step 2016). In some embodiments, the filtered imagedata may be returned directly to the client application for additionalprocessing before being displayed on the device's display. In otherembodiments, a lower resolution version of the filtered image may berendered and displayed on the device's preview screen in near-real time.

Referring now to FIG. 21, a simplified functional block diagram of arepresentative electronic device possessing a display 2100 according toan illustrative embodiment, e.g., camera device 208, is shown. Theelectronic device 2100 may include a processor 2116, display 2120,proximity sensor/ambient light sensor 2126, microphone 2106, audio/videocodecs 2102, speaker 2104, communications circuitry 2110, positionsensors 2124, image sensor with associated camera hardware 2108, userinterface 2118, memory 2112, storage device 2114, and communications bus2122. Processor 2116 may be any suitable programmable control device andmay control the operation of many functions, such as the mapping ofgestures to image filter input parameters, as well as other functionsperformed by electronic device 2100. Processor 2116 may drive display2120 and may receive user inputs from the user interface 2118. Anembedded processor, such a Cortex® A8 with the ARM® v7-A architecture,provides a versatile and robust programmable control device that may beutilized for carrying out the disclosed techniques. (CORTEX® and ARM®are registered trademarks of the ARM Limited Company of the UnitedKingdom.)

Storage device 2114 may store media (e.g., image and video files),software (e.g., for implementing various functions on device 2100),preference information, device profile information, and any othersuitable data. Storage device 2114 may include one more storage mediums,including for example, a hard-drive, permanent memory such as ROM,semi-permanent memory such as RAM, or cache.

Memory 2112 may include one or more different types of memory which maybe used for performing device functions. For example, memory 2112 mayinclude cache, ROM, and/or RAM. Communications bus 2122 may provide adata transfer path for transferring data to, from, or between at leaststorage device 2114, memory 2112, and processor 2116. User interface2118 may allow a user to interact with the electronic device 2100. Forexample, the user input device 2118 can take a variety of forms, such asa button, keypad, dial, a click wheel, or a touch screen.

In one embodiment, the personal electronic device 2100 may be aelectronic device capable of processing and displaying media such asimage and video files. For example, the personal electronic device 2100may be a device such as such a mobile phone, personal data assistant(PDA), portable music player, monitor, television, laptop, desktop, andtablet computer, or other suitable personal device.

The foregoing description of preferred and other embodiments is notintended to limit or restrict the scope or applicability of theinventive concepts conceived of by the Applicants. As one example,although the present disclosure focused on touch screen display screens,it will be appreciated that the teachings of the present disclosure canbe applied to other implementations, such as stylus-operated displayscreens. In exchange for disclosing the inventive concepts containedherein, the Applicants desire all patent rights afforded by the appendedclaims. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims include allmodifications and alterations to the full extent that they come withinthe scope of the following claims or the equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. An image processing method, comprising:obtaining, by an electronic device, an image using a camera; displaying,by the electronic device, the image to a touchscreen display; receiving,by the electronic device, a user selection of a particular location ofthe image using the touchscreen display to reveal a graphical control onthe display; in response to receiving the selection of the particularlocation, revealing, by the electronic device, the graphical control foradjusting a first parameter of the image by at least: displaying a rangeindicator that represents a range of values selectable for the firstparameter positioned according to: (a) the particular location, and (b)a current value of the first parameter within the range of values; anddisplaying a current setting indicator, initially positioned at theparticular location upon the range indicator, that represents thecurrent value of the first parameter within the range of values;receiving, by the electronic device, motion input to the rangeindicator; in response to receiving the motion input: moving, by theelectronic device, the current setting indicator along the rangeindicator to a current location of the motion input while keeping therange indicator stationary; and adjusting, by the electronic device, thefirst parameter of the image based on the motion input to produce anadjusted image; and storing, by the electronic device, the adjustedimage in a memory.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first parameteris selected from a group comprising: hue, contrast, exposure, andbrightness.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the motion input to therange indicator is received via the touchscreen display.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein an amount of change that the first parameter isadjusted is relative to an amount of change of the current settingindicator along the range indicator due to the motion input.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the electronicdevice, a selection of the first parameter to adjust.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, wherein the image obtained by the camera is a video stream ofimages, and wherein receiving the selection of the first parameter toadjust further comprises receiving, by the electronic device, aselection of an image frame of the video stream of images.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the first parameter is contrast, wherein thecontrast of the image is increased in response to movement of thecurrent setting indicator along the range indicator in a rightwarddirection, and wherein the contrast of the image is decreased inresponse to movement of the current setting indicator along the rangeindicator in a leftward direction.
 8. An apparatus comprising: an imagesensor for capturing an image; a touchscreen display; a memory incommunication with the image sensor; and a programmable control devicecommunicatively coupled to the image sensor, the touchscreen display,and the memory, wherein the memory includes instructions for causing theprogrammable control device to perform operations comprising: obtainingan image using the image sensor; displaying the image to the touchscreendisplay; receiving, via the touchscreen display, a user selection of aparticular location of the image to produce a range indicator on thedisplay; in response to receiving the selection of the particularlocation, revealing, by the electronic device, the graphical control foradjusting a first parameter of the image by at least: displaying a rangeindicator that represents a range of values selectable for the firstparameter positioned according to: (a) the particular location, and (b)a current value of the first parameter within the range of values; anddisplaying a current setting indicator, initially positioned at theparticular location upon the range indicator, that represents thecurrent value of the first parameter within the range of values;receiving motion input to the range indicator; in response to receivingthe motion input: moving the current setting indicator along the rangeindicator to a current location of the motion input while keeping therange indicator stationary; and adjusting the first parameter of theimage based on the motion input to produce an adjusted image; andstoring the adjusted image in a memory.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8,wherein the first parameter is selected from a group comprising: hue,contrast, exposure, and brightness.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8,wherein the motion input to the range indicator is received via thetouchscreen display.
 11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein an amount ofchange that the first parameter is adjusted is relative to an amount ofchange of the current setting indicator along the range indicator due tothe motion input.
 12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the operationsinclude: receiving a selection of the first parameter to adjust.
 13. Theapparatus of claim 12, wherein the image obtained by the image sensor isa video stream of images, and wherein receiving the selection of thefirst parameter to adjust further comprises receiving a selection of animage frame of the video stream of images.
 14. The apparatus of claim 8,wherein the first parameter is contrast, wherein the contrast of theimage is increased in response to movement of the current settingindicator along the range indicator in a rightward direction, andwherein the contrast of the image is decreased in response to movementof the current setting indicator along the range indicator in a leftwarddirection.
 15. A non-transitory computer readable storage mediumincluding computer readable program code stored thereon, wherein thecomputer readable program code, when executed by an electronic devicehaving one or more processors, causes the electronic device to performoperations comprising: obtaining, by the electronic device, an imageusing a camera; displaying, by the electronic device, the image to atouchscreen display; receiving, by the electronic device, a userselection of a particular location of the image using the touchscreendisplay to produce a range indicator on the display; in response toreceiving the selection of the particular location, revealing, by theelectronic device, the graphical control for adjusting a first parameterof the image by at least: displaying a range indicator that represents arange of values selectable for the first parameter positioned accordingto: (a) the particular location, and (b) a current value of the firstparameter within the range of values; and displaying a current settingindicator, initially positioned at the particular location upon therange indicator, that represents the current value of the firstparameter within the range of values; receiving, by the electronicdevice, motion input to the range indicator; in response to receivingthe motion input: moving, by the electronic device, the current settingindicator along the range indicator to a current location of the motioninput while keeping the range indicator stationary; and adjusting, bythe electronic device, the first parameter of the image based on themotion input to produce an adjusted image; and storing, by theelectronic device, the adjusted image in a memory.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thefirst parameter is selected from a group comprising: hue, contrast,exposure, and brightness.
 17. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the motion input to the rangeindicator is received via the touchscreen display.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein anamount of change that the first parameter is adjusted is relative to anamount of change of the current setting indicator along the rangeindicator due to the motion input.
 19. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations include:receiving, by the electronic device, a selection of the first parameterto adjust, wherein the image obtained by the camera is a video stream ofimages, and wherein receiving the selection of the first parameter toadjust further comprises receiving, by the electronic device, aselection of an image frame of the video stream of images.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thefirst parameter is contrast, wherein the contrast of the image isincreased in response to movement of the current setting indicator alongthe range indicator in a rightward direction, and wherein the contrastof the image is decreased in response to movement of the current settingindicator along the range indicator in a leftward direction.